(Sorry if this is in the wrong place). I've been skimming through old news to familiarize myself with past events. I joined a month ago, so I'm still learning about everything. I saw that in Oct. of 2012, subq was changed to the way it is now. Will it ever change back, and how did it work before?

No I don't believe it will change back. Before it was similar to the other shops. A little higher prices though if I'm remembering correctly.

So it rsed just like the main shops? Hmm do you know why it was changed?

I don't remember, but they added the Invites then. You might be able to find the answer to why in the comments on the news?

All I saw were restockers in a frenzy honestly. :P

A lot of the old SBQ items weren't worth an apple and an egg after a while of restocking so staff changed the system to keep the value of the items at a higher level. Besides staff lately prefers to find more unique ways to bring items into the economy a.k.a. they would like to move away from plain old shops restocking x items every y minutes for sP.

I'm a restocker. Restockers scream at just about anything. Me, I don't buy the "this must have value just because I think it does" or "it's rare (and nobody wants it or wants it at the outrageous price I'm charging) Subeta you must force them to pay me" crap that a few of the screamier of them spout, there's a little bit of both of those going on, too. The margins for Subeautique were really high and the absolute value of the markup on them was high. The margin is now less although the markup can still be noticeable. It's still a great deal so I undercut whenever I can.

Part of the reason it changed is that it was believed by users that certain users were buying up all the items without giving anyone else a chance at them. The usual mechanism here in Subeta for defeating/defusing this effect was Vending, and Subeautique (and for awhile All That Glitters, but no longer for that shop) did not Vend.

A time delay was introduced, and this did not satisfy those who were complaining.

Then, the idea of the Invites was thought up. This way since it was given out as an RE it theoretically gave each person a chance at the items and also the opportunity to "sell their turn" if they didn't want anything there. This way if the time delay was too short for some or too long for others it just didn't matter if you weren't Invited right? It also rewarded users who played here the most and this was seen as a good thing. Folks were also treating SBQ items like they treat ATG items now that they Vend that is to say like any other item. It was felt by users (and there was some buy in from staff) that these items must be made to seem precious.

Finally, folks with discount cards and who haggled (this was a thing) paid less sP for the items. Subeautique was intended from the very start to be like All That Glitters and to be an sP sink. The shop was also changed to prix fixe and the prices for each item increased quite a bit to make it more of an sP sink.

Ah thank you both!

you are welcome.